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Materials science is a fast growing area of science, especially in engineering. It involves taking various raw or ingredient substances and making them mix, combine or react together in various ways, to produce a new material with specialised properties. Each of the ingredient substances has some useful features, and these all add together to produce the final material. One example is glass-reinforced plastic, GRP. This is made by embedding tiny fibres of glass into a type of plastic. The plastic gives overall bulk and flexibility, while the glass fibres provide extra strength, stiffness and resistance to wear. GRP is used to make boat vehicles, aeroplanes, and factory and office equipment.

Space tiles- the tiles on the undersides of space shuttles are made of heat-resistant ceramic composites. As the shuttle comes back from space into the Earth’s atmosphere, friction with the thickening air generates enormous heat. The tiles keep this heat out of the shuttle’s interior. They are checked and renewed as necessary after each mission.